Ella is FIVE!

I cannot believe Craig and I have a five year old.  We were talking just yesterday about how old Ella is seeming these days with the way she speaks, acts, and the things she knows and observes.

 

We love our oldest girl and are so proud of the person she is becoming.  She has many talents, and we hope we can do a good job encouraging her to work on them and develop them further.  One of her favorite things to do is draw.  She is a pretty fantastic artist for her age, and will happily spend a couple of hours every day drawing.  Her favorite things to draw right now are unicorns, princesses, mermaids, towers/castles, stars, the sun, the moon, girls with curly hair, Christmas scenes, angels, and family portraits.

Here is a drawing that she did a few weeks ago that was especially impressive to us:

=

   
Ella is a girly little girl.  For her birthday she requested a pampered princess party.  We let her invite three of her friends over (because, let's face it, I'm not a mega huge birthday party throwing kind of mom) on December 17th  to celebrate with her a week after her real birthday.

Here is what we did at the party:

The girls all had crowns, and decorated wands to go with them, while Isaac decorated a kings crown.

Make overs: I painted their nails while Craig read them a Fancy Nancy book

We put lipstick on the girls for a Kiss the Frog game... same concept at Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

 Next we played a little dice rolling, fairy princess game

Sang happy birthday, ate cake

Opened presents and gave hugs.

... and the GRAND FINALE - my favorite party of the party - Isaac, dressed as a dragon, roared at and ran after Ella and her friends, dressed as princesses.  Everyone was screaming, laughing, running around, and having a blast.

Then came the surprising twist, when the girls were caught up against a wall, and decided to turn around and scare the dragon instead!

  
Like I have said before - I am not a party planning mom... but with just a few friends and simple games/activities, the party was stress free, and a big success.  Ella felt very special and had the time of her life!

Here is a little questionaire that I had Ella answer again this year about herself.  The answers in blue are from last year, and the answers in pink are from this year:

1. What is your favorite color?
pink and purple and blue

2. What is your favorite toy?
barbies

3. What is your favorite fruit?
strawberries and pomegranates

4. What is your favorite tv show?
Tinkerbell

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
apples and cucumber sandwiches

6. What is your favorite outfit? 
my favorite skirt (the one her grammy made) and purple shirt

7. What is your favorite game?
pretending to be a princess and chasing around the dragon who is shooting fire.  And the dragon is really Issac.

8. What is your favorite snack?
well it is, like,... Im saying 'like um'... chips

9. What is your favorite animal?
giraffe, because i get to feed them at the zoo.

10. What is your favorite song?
Call Me Maybe

11. What is your favorite book?
The Wheels on the Bus book

12. Who is your best friend?
Mariah and Isaac

13. What is your favorite cereal?
Cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
play Rapunzel with Isaac and myself

15. What is your favorite drink?
lemonade

16. What is your favorite holiday?  
Snow time (then I explained what I meant by 'holiday'...), Christmas because it's Jesus' birthday

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
my baby elephant, pinky pie, unicorn pillow pet, and my blanket

18. What do you want to be when you grow up? 
a princess, and for my job I want to work. (what kind of work?)  Just work.  Like high school.

19.  What's the funniest thing you've ever heard? 
nothing (not easy to please, I guess!)

We love our fun, kind, compassionate, sensitive, smart, creative, playful, artistic little girl!